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Hard-Fi - 'I Shall Overcome'

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Fraser McAlpine | 09:36 UK time, Tuesday, 26 February 2008

Hard FiOoh, interesting new lyrical premise! Take a famous song title which attempts to speak for many people at once, using the word 'we' (is it called first person plural? Something like that) and reduce it down to just one person, 'I', in a lyrically arrogant sort of way.

So just as 'We Shall Overcome' - the civil rights protest anthem - has been boiled down to 'I Shall Overcome', you could also have 'I Can Work It Out', 'I Am Family', 'I Am The Champions', 'I've Gotta Get Out Of This Place', 'I Don't Talk Anymore', 'I Am The World', 'I Am Detective', 'I All Stand Together', 'I Close Our Eyes', 'I Built This City (On Rock 'N' Roll)', 'I Come 1', or even 'I Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off'.

It's all about meee.....it's all about me BAYBEEEH!

*cough* Er, where was I? Oh yes. Hard-Fi. Now, it might seem like a total fantasy, and very insulting to your average 'street level' Hard-Fi buff, but am I alone in detecting a marked Robbie Williams influence over this song? I mean I know they talk it like the Clash, but do they walk it like that bloke from out of Take That?

This is the kind of argument which can only be settled in a court of law (or round the back of the court of law, with big sticks). Who's with me?

Case For The Prosecution:
The whole thing is arranged like a mash-up of the moodier Robbie songs, 'Supreme', 'Come Undone' and 'No Regrets' especially. Sadly it lacks a genius counter-melody in the chorus, as sung by Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, or a smart-arse stolen string refrain from a disco classic, but still, the structure is a definite match. And, consciously or otherwise, Richard does even sing "come undone" in a very Robbie-ish purr at one point.

Case For The Defense:
OMG how can you say it sounds like Robbie Williams? I mean they're Hard-Fi! They're doing it for the kids! When did Robbie do it for anyone other than himself, eh? Bloody never, that's when! God! I mean Hard-Fi are, like, the authentic voice of the disenfranchised working classes, forced to deal with low expectations and little chance of escape in an increasingly homogenised suburban sprawl, yeah? Robbie is like, SO NOT that!

Judge's Verdict:
*wakeyface* I'm sorry, were you talking to me?

So there we have it. Who says the British legal system isn't the best in the world?

Three starsDownload: Out now
CD Released:
March 3rd

(Fraser McAlpine)

Comments

  1. At 10:56 AM on 26 Feb 2008, Roxy wrote:

    Haha, I like this song but PLZ RELEASE LITTLE ANGEL!! Best song on the album.
    3 stars is right I think.

    (Btw any chance you could do a review on Gabriella Cilmi's Sweet About Me)

  2. At 12:27 PM on 26 Feb 2008, wrote:

    Not the best track from their new album, but still better than some of the other pap that's in the charts at the moment!

    The Robbie similarities are actually a little bit worrying, but I think you meant to say "waddle like that bloke from Take That". Didn't you? Of course you did...

    [For a while, I had the word 'sashay' down. But 'waddle' will also do. - Fraser]

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